“It’s just as hard to write a bad book as a good one,” I heard more than once as I was beating myself up on my latest endeavor. It was actually encouraging, in a way. That meant it was just as easy to write a good book, assuming my instincts were true and I had good readers around me to keep me on course.

The pen in my banner is a Etoile de Montblanc Etoile Mystérieuse Fountain Pen. It costs $15,600. (But you can get it engraved and wrapped for free.) It is lovely, isn’t it?

I don’t write with a $15,000 pen. I barely use pens at all, in fact. But the Montblanc makes a much handsomer banner than a battered laptop keyboard with most of the letters rubbed off the keys.

It is my considered opinion that it is every bit as hard to write with a $15,000 pen as it is to write with a $1,500 laptop. Harder, possibly — you can’t cut and paste, or delete whole pages, or search and replace, or make global changes.

And so, I keep going as I have been — and intend to continue, until I can afford to buy a $15,000 pen that I need to sign autographs for my many fans.

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Lucien Fewell shot James Clark after he apparently ran off with Lucien's 16-year-old sister. The murder trial that followed featured two Confederate generals and a former Virginia governor. What was the verdict? (also on Amazon.com)